Strangers
by Lacygrey
Summary: Go is of life's mysteries, but then so is Shindou Hikaru


**Strangers**

There's no one left here but her.

Alone in the science lab, Akari places stone after stone on the goban. Tsutsui has gone to see a friend and Hikaru has followed that Mitani to a Go salon.

So, with lines of flasks and bunsens as her only audience, she experiments. First, she makes neat little corrals of each color, like the ones Tsutsui showed her for counting territory. Then, once she's gotten the goban mapped out in black and white, she tries sliding the stones to change the shapes. She keeps the territory the same though (not like that Mitani), but makes the forms ever more jagged and encroaching, working backwards toward an imaginary game.

Does she only want to play Go to be with Hikaru, she wonders. Or could there be something more to this game, these patterns? How would it feel to actually play someone for real? She's wondered about asking her friends to join the club, but she knows the reactions she'll get: _"Boring." "Totally uncool." "You've got to be joking!"_ Then she thinks about volleyball girl.

_"Can you really play go?"_ she'd asked. In truth, Akari had been surprised that there were girls who played Go. But mostly she'd just been jealous: because Hikaru brought the girl to the club, because he'd paid attention to her and not to Akari, and because he did all this because volleyball girl played Go. She stops herself. Doesn't this mean that she could play Go too? And if that girl had stayed, then perhaps they could even have played together. Akari knows that's still impossible because she knows hardly anything about Go yet. She still doesn't like the idea of losing to that girl though. She'll have to get better first. Then she'll go ask volleyball girl for a game.

A steady drip, dripping comes from one of the taps at the sink, but she's too absorbed to notice. She's peering at the entwined shapes she's created when she hears a gasp from behind her. She turns.

'Tseut-?' But it's not Tsutsei. Its that boy from Kaio who was here before. He must be looking for Hikaru again, to play more Go. He's looking past her, staring at the board, his pale uniform out of place here where she's so used to seeing traditional black ones.

"Excuse me," he says dragging his eyes from the goban and looking at her. He murmurs a greeting. This is Touya Akira she remembers. Then he says exactly what she's expecting:  
"Im looking for Shindou Hikaru."

"I'm sorry, he's gone to recrute for our club." She smiles proudly, but Touya's eyes have already sanpped back to the goban. He approaches it and, with a hand hovering over the stones, starts to trace shapes that aren't there, as though trying to work out what strategies this pattern had grown from.

"So strange, the formations there…How?" he finishes. Its more of an exclamation than a question. "Is this one of his games?"

"Um, actually…" She looks at his serious expression and feels rather embarrassed. "This isn't a game that actually happened. I was making it up."

His face goes drawn in disappointment for an instant, he nods and then, looking back at the goban again smiles weakly and says, "Of course. Its just, I really thought for a moment it could have been...You made this up?" She nods.  
"I do that too, sometimes."

That's strange she thinks. This boy already plays go, probably better than Hikaru - given how Hikaru reacted on his last visit - but he still makes up games.

"Are you good at Go?" she asks. It feels as if she's being rude again, like with volleyball girl.

"I used to think I was." She notices that drawn look again, accentuating his sharp features. "I've played Go almost as long as I can remember." Now she's puzzled. Why would someone like this challenge Hikaru?

"Why won't Shindou just play me?" he asks her. "It would be so much simpler." Much simpler than what, she wonders. She moves to the goban and starts to tidy away her non-game.

"I don't kno-" she stops herself, thinking of her own situation and says: "Perhaps he wants to get better first."

Touya shakes his head. "It's me that needs to get better." He moves to help her. "Do you know Shindou Hikaru well?"

"I've known him almost as long as I remember. He lives in my neighbourhood so we kind of grew up together. There's not much I don't know about him, except for the Go of course. I wish I understood more. When they play for a long time I can't follow or when they talk, I don't understand the names of the moves.

"I can tell you about Go." he says suddenly.

"What, you'd teach me?"

"Take black" he affirms, pulling a stool up to the bench where the goban is sitting. She thinks of Hikaru's attempt to teach her, her utter failure at a simple move and his scathing reaction. Hikaru is not a patient teacher. And even if he were, he and Tsutsui are preparing for the tournament now and don't really have time to help a beginner. The tournament, she thinks with a start. What would they say if she got help from a boy from Kaio.

"I really do want to get better at Go and I really do want you to help me but...but you can't tell anyone, okay. You wouldn't tell Hikaru, would you?"

"Of course not."

"That's good." she says, accepting the goke of battered black stones. "That way I can surprise him!"

.

* * *

.

**Author's note**

Hikaru no Go is the property of Hotta and Obata. This is a nonprofit-making fanfiction.

Written for the Dreamwidth Drabblefest to a prompt from **Qem**: Akira/Akari Rivalry!

I'm tempted to go on...


End file.
